The present invention relates to a yarn end loosening apparatus for a textile winding machine and, more particularly, a yarn end loosening apparatus for loosening the yarn end of a yarn package built on a tube which is individually supported on a tube support member.
It is known to provide a textile winding machine with a plurality of independently movable tube support members and to transfer yarn packages comprising yarn built on tubes from a yarn package storage location onto the tube support members. The tube support members typically include an upright member for receiving a tube inserted thereon to support the tube in a generally upright disposition. The tube support members are typically moved in a path which initially leads to a yarn end preparation machine which loosens the yarn end of each package, without regard to the location of the yarn end on the package, and disposes the yarn end in a preferred preliminary position such as, for example, in a bottom winding around the bottom portion of the tube. From there, the tube support members are transported to a winding station in which the yarn packages are unwound from the tubes. Following the winding station, the tube support members, with empty tubes supported thereon, are transported to a tube removal location for removing the empty tubes. Those tube support members from which a tube has been removed are then returned to the tube transfer location for the insertion of a new yarn package thereon.
However, sometimes tube support members are transported to the unwinding location having yarn packages thereon which have not undergone the process of disposing the yarn end of the package in a preferred preliminary disposition. In this situation, a yarn end may be located at any one of an infinite number of random locations on the yarn package. To initiate the unwinding process, the yarn end must first be loosened from the yarn package and guided to an appropriate yarn draw-off component of the winding machine. Accordingly, the need exists for an apparatus which efficiently and reliably loosens a yarn end of a yarn package for engagement of the yarn end by the yarn draw-off component of the winding station, if the yarn end has not initially been disposed in a preferred preliminary disposition with respect to the yarn package.